How Blitzing Works
On passing plays, the offense always has at least five men blocking. From the quarterback's left to his right, they are: left tackle, left guard, center, right guard, right tackle. Depending on the personnel, formation, and blocking principles the offense uses, they can have a maximum of nine players blocking on any given pass play (this type of maximum protection is succinctly called "Max Protect"). Since the quarterback is throwing the pass, he cannot block and must have at least one receiver to catch the pass. Assuming the lone wide receiver is covered by a defensive back, this leaves the defense ten players to rush the quarterback versus the offense's nine blockers — the offense is outnumbered and at a disadvantage. Because the quarterback cannot block during passing plays, the defense always has one more man available to rush than the offense can block.
Usually offenses do not max protect, varying the levels of protection available depending on the play design and the quarterback's pre-snap read of the defense. The more receivers the offense has running passing routes, the better their chances are of completing the pass. This factor allows defenses to devise and execute a staggering variety of blitz packages between any number of their coverage personnel, trading tight coverage of receivers for proactive aggressive disruption of the play.
By nature, blitzes are risky endeavors for the defense. Since the defense is taking away coverage defenders to rush the quarterback, this usually means that the secondary can't afford to miss any coverage assignments. The defense does not and cannot cover all offensive players, but rather through the blitz, is proactively involved in pressuring the quarterback — specifically, trying to sack him, throw off his timing, or force him to make an error such as an interception or fumble.
The most common blitzes are linebacker blitzes. Safety blitzes, in which a safety (usually the free safety) is sent, and corner blitzes, where a cornerback is sent, are less common. Sending a defensive back on a blitz is even riskier than a linebacker blitz, as it removes a primary pass defender from the coverage scheme. The pressure, however, is very severe because a blitz by a defensive back is usually not anticipated by the offensive team’s blockers.
Read more about this topic: Blitz (gridiron Football)
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